SOURCE: "Reynolds Price: 'A Chain of Love'," in God's Story and Modern Literature, Fortress Press, 1985, pp. 151-61.

In the following excerpt, Ficken discusses how Price uses humor and descriptive narrative to the examine the painful reality of death in "A Chain of Love. "

Reynolds Price is a contemporary Southern writer who has translated some biblical stories and has written about the value of narrative for human survival—whether a person is listening to or telling the tales. He cites the earliest narratives we have, those from the Hebrew Scriptures—the stories of Genesis and Judges, for example—and links the hearing and telling of those narratives with the growth and nurture of a people. His point is that the stories we hear as we mature can be the instruments by which we sense our own worth and learn what is necessary for our lives. Precisely through the story...